26 March 2022

Soya

A field of soya beans 

There's a lot of unsubstantiated mythology surrounding soya bean production. Back in 1970, annual worldwide production was at 43.7 million tonnes. By 2018 that figure had risen dramatically  to 347.9 million tonnes per annum. Why?

The myth makers and their adherents suggest that it's all down to plant-based diets and the growth in veganism and vegetarianism. However, this is nonsense. Careful analysis by Oxford University demonstrates that the huge growth in soy production is mostly down to the worldwide meat industry. 77% of all soy produced is used in animal feeds. Less than 7% of the soy we harvest goes into human foodstuffs such as tofu, tempeh and soya milk.

Global meat production has tripled in the last fifty years and the acreage of land devoted to soya production has quadrupled. Hence, huge swathes of the Amazon rainforest are now being used for soya farming. It's all about keeping animals fed not about tofu in the supermarket.

Sometimes people believe what they want to believe in spite of the evidence in front of their eyes. We have seen it with COVID  and we see it in relation to how so many gullible Russians interpret what is happening in Ukraine.

And it's the same with soya. By far, its principal use is in feeding animals but I know that those who do not wish to accept this incontrovertible truth will continue to point their fingers at plant-based diets.

By the way, in terms of land use, direct human consumption of soya in its different forms is a far more effective type of nutrition than garnering it from butchered animals raised on soya.  In their short lives animals burn off calories and they defecate and parts of them are not suitable for human consumption anyway. If all soya was harvested exclusively and directly for humans, we would use up far fewer precious acres than when animals are placed in the equation.

There's lots more I could say about the amazing soya bean and the climate issues surrounding it but I am going to leave the subject there for now.

41 comments:

  1. Anonymous12:10 am

    77 percent is a staggering figure. I didn't even know what a fresh soya bean looked like.

    Enjoy your textured vegetable protein steak tonight.

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    1. We had vegan curry as my son was back "Up North" Andrew.

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  2. We grew soybeans (and rice) for 25-30 years, but the soybeans weren't for human consumption. We've been out of the farming business for quite a few years, yet I still only buy Arkansas rice when possible. I've never really thought about where my soy products come from.

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    1. I didn't know they grew rice in Arkansas but I once visited a former rice plantation on the coast of Georgia.

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    2. Arkansas is the top rice producing state in the US, followed by California and Louisiana.

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    3. Well, we live and learn Kelly. Thanks.

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  3. Meat production is greedy for land and everything else. I'm not a strict vegetarian although I prefer a plant based diet. (plus dairy which is another sticky issue)

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    1. It is staggering that there are people out there who ignorantly dismiss the overwhelming evidence that reducing meat in our diets will benefit our planet by reducing global warming.

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  4. I had no idea so much soya was used to feed animals. I personally don't like soy, apart from a small splash of soy sauce in some recipes. I've tried cappuccino's made with soy milk and they were just so-so. Probably I could get used to it if I had to. Anyway, I get your point about more people eating soy instead of meat, but that won't lessen the impact on rain forests.

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    1. If the demand is reduced there will be less motivation to obliterate huge swathes of rainforest.

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  5. Soya bean biofuels could be a way out of relying on countries like Russia for oil and gas which makes granulated fertilizer and is nearly fifty Euros a bag at present.

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    1. The Ukraine War challenges may of our assumptions.

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  6. It's stunning how much land is wasted to raise a crop to feed a herd to feed the people, when we might just be netter off using less land to grow more of our own food.

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  7. The market dictates what farmers grow on their acres. I am always amused at people living inefficient unsustainable lives in cities trying to dictate that farmers become more sustainable and efficient for city dwellers sake.

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    1. I don't quite "get" your last point Ed.

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    2. It was a snarky comment and not meant to be taken seriously. But coming from a farm growing up where we were 100% sustainable, it always ruffled our feathers when others living unsustainable lives tell farmers how they could do better. I agree that there is always room for improvement but have always felt that one should correct the problems close to home before fixing them at someone else’s home. In this case, implying farmers should get rid of all livestock and raise veggies without any thoughts on how to fertilize them, how to raise them without clogging out atmosphere with carbon, how to package then in a way that doesn’t fill up those mountainous landfills outside of town and what to do with all the excess that the market doesn’t demand, etc. Sorry, it just isn’t a black and white solution and I’m not convinced that we end up with a better environment when all is said and done.

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    3. I never suggested there was a simple black and white solution.

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    4. That you didn’t. I just wanted to present the other side of the coin and thank you for allowing me to do just that.

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  8. I think the world is doomed.

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    1. Hey up, Tasker. This isn't Yorkshire talk.
      Pandora closed the box before Hope could fly away.

      *Hope is the power of being cheerful in circumstances that we know to be desperate.*
      G.K. Chesterton

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    2. Isn't that a line from "Dad's Army"?

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  9. I think that some of the demonisation of meat comes from the intensification of agriculture in general. I lived the first 18 years of my life on a small (200 acre) mixed farm with both small dairy herd and free range chickens. The cows were all primarily grass fed (including during the winter - they remained outside but with supplemental feed of hay and silage from the farm earlier in the year. Likewise, manure and chicken litter was used to return fertility back to the soli on a rotational basis.
    The problems seem to have come later with intensification and specialising, this farm got rid of the cows and converted to more intensive arable farming, whilst others moved to to intensive milk and meat production.
    Whether any kind of return to the mixed dairy/arable model would be economically possible these days is a different question.

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    1. Thank you Will. Interesting reflections on farming and the industry that it has become.

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  10. I became a vegetarian at 17 during a time when having a meatless diet made you appear a little odd. For some reason announcing your vegetarianism back in the eighties put people on the defensive. They seemed to want to find flaws in your ideology, (and I'm sure their were plenty in mine, ie. my leather shoes) so instead of discussing my choice, I avoided the topic. It's sad to read that global meat production has tripled in the last 50 years. On the other hand, vegans and vegetarians are everywhere these days and no one seems obliged to defend their eating habits. There's hope...

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    1. You were ahead of the game Melinda. Even today, my vegan son Ian has to field a lot of insidious remarks and questions.

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  11. I suppose the same case could be made for (or, more accurately, against) corn, as there are vast swaths of land in the midwestn parts of the U.S. that are planted in corn, and it is not for human consumption such as cornflakes as one might supect but for feeding hogs and chickens.

    For people enamoured of edamame (there must be millions), which is, after all, soy beans, I have an amusing true story. On a recent episode of the television game show Wheel of Fortune, where people try to be the first to solve word puzzles while Vanna White reveals the lthe answer one letter at a time, a particular puzzle in the category Rhyming Foods turned out to be "Cheese and black-eyed peas". Host Pat Sajak remarked that he had suggested "salami and edamame" to the producers, but they rejected it.

    Interesting post, Neil. Very informative.

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    1. Thanks for calling by once again Bob. The world's population has grown tremendously in your lifetime and all of those extra people need to eat. Meat eating in China has grown vastly. Thanks for sharing the "Family Fortunes" funny.

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  12. I didn't realize cows ate soybeans. Here the cows pretty much eat grass. When I was a kid my best friend's uncle had a potato farm and his cows, he only had a few, ate potatoes.

    I've tried soybeans a couple of times but the gas my body produced by these beans was horrific. TMI, I know. Sorry.

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    1. Most soy bean products are consumed by chickens and pigs. Not so much cattle. I wonder what Albertan cows eat in the depth of winter?

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    2. They eat hay, cut grass.

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  13. I do make meatless meals but it should be more frequent. I have a lifetime habit of meat filled recipes that is hard to let go of.

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    1. I am just the same Ellen. We have some vegan and vegetarian meals but entrenched habits die hard.

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  14. Yes, that's my understanding too -- the vast majority of soy (as we call it in the USA) is consumed by animals. We'd all be better off if our meat and dairy industries weren't so huge.

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    1. Many people are in denial about the neat industry and how it contributes significantly to global warming when science has spelt it out so clearly.

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    2. It's not very neat! :)

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    3. Ha-ha! Yeah, I meant to say "meat"!

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  15. This is something I didn't know but I'm not surprised by the statistics. One of the largest feed lots is 6 miles from where I was born. It's unbelievable the number of animals that are fed there.

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    1. It is so different from the kind of farming that used to happen around the world.

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  16. and this is exactly why I eat vegan about 5 days a week

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    1. You get the connection Kylie. It seems that many are in denial about it.

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